The 2014 Big Ten Men’s Hockey Tournament kicked off with a bang as we had two outstanding games on Thursday. No. 6 Penn State opened with a memorable 2-1 victory over No. 3 Michigan in double overtime. Ohio State followed with an impressive 2-1 win over Michigan State in overtime. We tweet this links during games via Twitter @BigTenNetwork. [ MORE: Penn State stuns Michigan in B1G Hockey Tourney | Ohio State skates by MSU in OT ] Friday’s semifinal round will open with second-seeded Wisconsin battling Penn State at 3 p.m. ET. Friday’s second semifinal will feature top-seeded Minnesota

Mollie Barden was working in her Wisconsin dorm room two years ago on Halloween when there was a knock on her door. Begrudgingly, she answered, expecting rowdy kids looking for treats. What she found instead would help change the course of her college experience. Barden was met by five members of Badger Acts of Kindness (BAK), a student group focused on spreading happiness and kindness across the UW campus. The students were “reverse trick-or-treating” and giving candy to unsuspecting students like Barden. “At first I thought they wanted candy, and I was frustrated because I didn’t have any and I

The Big Ten Conference announced the hockey All-Conference teams and individual award winners on Monday as selected by the conference’s coaches and a media panel. Minnesota’s Adam Wilcox was named Big Ten Player and Goaltender of the Year. Fellow Gopher Mike Reilly earned Defensive Player of the Year honors, awarded to a defenseman or forward, while Minnesota head coach Don Lucia was tabbed Coach of the Year. Michigan’s JT Compher collected Freshman of the Year laurels. The tournament airs Thursday through Saturday with all five games on BTN/BTN2Go (see the full bracket). Thursday, March 20, 2014 Game 1: No. 3

The Big Ten announced on Saturday the bracket for the 2014 Big Ten Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament, presented by Polaris RZR®. No. 1 Minnesota collected the top seed after earning the outright Big Ten title with a 3-2 overtime win Friday at Michigan. The 2014 Big Ten Tournament will be played Thursday-Saturday at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn. [ MORE: View the official Big Ten hockey tournament bracket (PDF) ] Minnesota led the conference with 45 points this season and a conference record of 14-3-3-0. Wisconsin enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed, earning a first-round bye

The first Big Ten men’s hockey regular season wraps up this weekend, which means the first Big Ten Men’s Hockey Tournament is next week. The Big Ten will release the official six-team bracket on Saturday after the No. 1-ranked Minnesota plays at Michigan on BTN/BTN2Go. Right now, of course, the bracket is blank (see the bracket PDF here) as the regular season title is still up for grabs between Minnesota and Wisconsin. The top two seeds get a first-round bye. We do know this: No. 3 Michigan will play No. 6 Penn State on Thursday. Also Thursday, No. 4 or

There were two exciting Big Ten hockey games on Friday night. Penn State notched a memorable 5-4 upset win over Michigan in the first game of the night. No. 8 Wisconsin followed with an impressive 5-2 victory over Michigan State. Catch up on all the stats, scores and highlights in this post. [ MORE: View the 2014 BTN Frozen Fridays Schedule ] WISCONSIN 5, MICHIGAN STATE 2 | RECAP The Wisconsin men’s hockey team has struggled on the power play this season, entering Friday’s contest against Michigan State (9-14-7, 3-6-6-4 Big Ten) having converted on just over 15 percent of

The Canadian women’s hockey team won Olympic gold at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics by defeating Team USA in a dramatic overtime comeback on Thursday, and each team featured several players who play or played for Big Ten schools. Team USA goalie and Wisconsin product Jessie Vetter played in net while Team USA captain and Wisconsin product Meghan Duggan added one of the two U.S. goals. The U.S held a 2-0 lead in the third period before Canada scored two late goals to send it to overtime where they eventually won it. Vetter played four years at Wisconsin and set

Did you enjoy the exciting hockey action at the Olympics this weekend? We recently shared the great work being done off the ice by Joe Pavelski and Amanda Kessel, two Big Ten alumni helping their teams go for gold in Sochi. DYK: 1,707 stuffed animals have been collected from @OhioState_MHKY #TeddyBearToss the last 3 yrs combined. #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/xglPU3TIBA — Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) February 12, 2014 The 46th annual University of Minnesota apparel design fashion show, ALIGN, took place on Saturday. Check out some of the highlights on the program’s website and Facebook page! Scientists at Michigan and Purdue may have cracked

There were three entertaining Big Ten hockey games Friday night. Michigan State kicked off the evening with a shootout win over Penn State. Ohio State followed with an impressive 2-1 victory over Wisconsin, and Minnesota topped Michigan, 5-3 in a top-10 matchup. Catch up on all the scores, stats and in-game highlights in this post. [ MORE: View the 2014 BTN Frozen Fridays Schedule ] MINNESOTA 5, MICHIGAN 3 | RECAP On a night that started with the Golden Gophers honoring the legendary John Mayasich, No. 2 Minnesota turned on the offense in honor of the program’s all-time leading scorer